Erin Yungblut's profile picture from the IBU (International Biathalon Union) website.Erin Yungblut's profile picture from the IBU (International Biathalon Union) website.
Midwestern

Local Olympic Hopeful Gets A Local Boost In Listowel

A fundraiser was held yesterday at the Listowel Rifle and Revolver Club for a future Olympic hopeful.

An athlete from Wroxeter is training to compete for Canada in the Biathalon at the 2018 Winter Games. That would be 23-year-old Erin Yungblut, who trains in Canmore, Alberta to chase her dream of the 2018 Pyongyang  Winter Olympics. She trains the heaviest between May and November, and says it's very high intensity. Yungblut says that she feels tremendous support from the local community, and was thankful people came out to support her goal.

"To get this kind of support from the local area, an area I grew up in, is very special and humbling to me. It makes me want to work harder to make these people proud," she says.

Erin is currently in her second year of senior biathlon competition in Canada, as you are listed as a junior until you're older than 21. She says Canada takes four competitors to the Olympics, and she is currently ranked sixth. While she realizes there is a lot of work to do working on her skiing and sharp-shooting skills to succeed, she says representing Canada would be an incredible experience.

"That's kind of the pinnacle moment I've been working towards my whole life, and to represent the country and all these people that have supported me through many different adverse situations, it would be pretty special," she says.

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